Move from 5850 Extreme Crossfire to single GPU?

[the_director]

I currently have 2 5850 Extremes in Crossfire with a Q6600 @3.5 which is bottlenecking them considerably. I'm going to build a new PC in the future and wanted ideally a case that was easy to carry (Coolermaster scout with handles being one case that might be suitable) and most cases like these are quite tight, so a single card might be better in this setup.

However, the price of the 5850 Extreme is now £161.99 on here and other cards seem pretty steep as well. The Crossfire performance of the 5850 Extremes is pretty formidable (would be with a newer CPU at least) and I only paid £98 each for mine a while back. So, anything around the £200 that could match the performance of these two cards, or should I just buy a bigger case to fit them in and just lug my PC around as best I can?

 

[Surveyor]

You'll get nothing to match them for £200 or even a bit more.

CF HD 5850 v HD 6950 CF HD 5850 wins.

CF HD 5850 v GTX 570 CF HD 5850 wins.

CF HD 5850 v GTX 480 Even if you can find one for close to £200 CF HD 5850 wins.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

Even against the 580, there isnt much in it. Some games the 5850CF is better, some the 580 is better.

 

[SeraphX]

Agree with surveyor, crossfired 5850's are very formidable, why not upgrade your cpu to help them? you should be able to pick up a nice Q9650 for less than 100 quid overclocked to say 3.8Ghz or more

 

[the_director]

Cheers, I thought this would be the case. I have watched Q9650s on EBay and they normally go for nearly as much as a 2500k, so I will upgrade whole system probably at some point. Will wait for BD release to see what they are like and whether even if they're not great whether they knock 2500k price down a little.